Signing Off.....temporarily

I do not know how to start this one. I am so overwhelmed right now. I will not be blogging for a while. I am taking a break to prepare for the move, take a trip home, see my son through a minor surgical procedure, welcome my husband home, and leave for Alaska. I will not have my computer, so I do know how much internet time I will get between now and then.

Please pray...
for Noah as he will be having a cyst removed from his leg in late July/early Aug
for Caleb to be able to go to half-days with his brace in Aug
for Kevin to get home safe, soon, and our transition back into our whole family unit
for me and the boys as we are traveling home to AL and TN
for all of us as we move to AK
for the move to actually go through
for me at the closing
for the strength of my friends who are helping me through not having Kevin
for our military
for all those military families who are left behind
for the fallen Charleston firefighters and their families
for our country to choose the right leader

Hopefully, I can make a new post in the upcoming months.

Did I Say a Little LESS Stress?

What was I thinking? A little less stress, yeah right! My sweet sweet boy #1 gave me quite the scare last night after church. He ran out the back doors of the church headed for the gym, like he does every Wed. night. This time, though, he missed the step and took a dive right into the pavement. It was horrible! He was screaming at the top of his lungs. For me, this is a serious sign, cause he is very tough. Most of the time he usually dusts himself off and is on his way. He did not move. He was just was lying there screaming. I went running, scooped him up and headed for the kitchen to get some ice. He put up a fight about the ice saying, "No, I not like ice". Bless his heart, my strong willed child trying to control the situation with a busted head! So after some coaxing and mild restraint, he let me put the ice on his head. I kept him up a little late to be sure he didn't inflict any serious damage. I put him in bed with me and when I tucked him in I asked him if he was feeling bad, and he said, "No, but I think you might need to take me to the hospital". I kinda giggled, cause if he really knew what would happen at the hospital, he wouldn't have asked. So anyway, every few hours I woke him up and asked him a few questions, he told me when I woke him up the last time VERY early this morning before I could even ask, "You are mommy and I'm in mommy's bed!" He is one tough kid. God bless him. I just love him so much!

A Little Less Stress

Well, it happened. WE GOT THE MILITARY MOVERS COMING!!!!! Talk about a huge amt of stress lifted!! I can't believe how hard it is to move. I really can't believe how hard it is to do on one's own. Thank God for the military providing movers, cause as many times as we are going to be moving I don't know how I would keep my sanity. Added bonus, we get to spend a few more nights in the house. :) So, now I must prepare things that the movers will not be moving. When dealing with military movers, you pratically have to hide things you do not want them packing because they will pack everything. I am not kidding, I have had friends whose trash cans were packed with the trash still in it! I have also heard of some folks having their big green garbage can packed and having to pay for the can because it was taken. Don't get me wrong I am so thankful the movers are coming, but I don't like the idea of having to babysit for 3 days, and maneuver myself around to find some privacy when I have to nurse Caleb. You know what though, I'll do that instead of packing a 1700sq ft house, any day of the week! So, thank you for the prayers and thoughts, cause God heard them and answered. He really is the God of Answered Prayer. PRAYER WORKS!!!!!

Beach Bums

I took the kids to the beach for Father's Day. It was only bittersweet since we could not celebrate with Kevin. We have had so many good memories at the beach. The kids had a great time. Noah is a true beach bum, he did not want to leave. He loves playing in the surf. There were lots of critters out this trip, we found a crab - about the size of a baseball, a starfish, and some really great shells. Caleb was very content chewing on the sand rake! Caleb is great at the beach. He liked sitting in the water and trying to chew on his toes! The only bad thing yesterday was that it was very very windy. So, our trip was cut short when Caleb could not fall asleep on the towel because he was not liking the wind blowing in his face and blowing sand on him. Oh well, he was a trooper for a nice 2 hour visit.

There was a complete scare on the beach as well. A family lost their little girl, a 6yr old. This is fairly common at this beach (that sounds bad!), because it is usually packed, and the case is that a family member took the child to the restroom, etc. and did not tell the rest of the family. So, everyone is called out of the water, police beach patrol are cruising the beach, everyone is looking for this little girl. Luckily she was found. Not sure what the case was this time. But I saw the mom hugging her, for a long time. My stomach was in knots when this started taking place, and my mommy-sense heightened about 10 fold. I just kept looking at my boys thinking I would absolutely die if I lost one of them. I don't think I would be able to function. I am so glad this family found their little girl.

On a positive note, we got orders!!!! YIPPEEE!!!! I am just waiting for them to email to me. Let me tell ya, that email can't come soon enough. Big scare last week, and I was told there was a great chance of us not moving to Alaska. Reason being, was that Caleb would not have access to a pediatric ortho for his foot. Well, after lots of talking with the Alaska med clinic ortho staff, they cleared everyone medically to move. PRAISE GOD! I knew from the very moment we sold our house, He was with this move. Every little drama has thwarted my faith and had me start doubting. I would try to fight, but always felt like I was not giving enough. Once again, my God comes through and it is so clear how we are meant to go to Alaska and no human person can stop that from happening. Now if He could only do something about Kevin coming home early......hmmmmm. Oh, how I wish.

So now the big thing is, can I get the military movers here before the closing of the house? As soon as I get orders in hand, I will know.

I can't believe we are moving.

Look At Me!

Caleb being cool wearing his brother's nemo shades!



His newest achievement! He is on his way to becoming a big boy! The time seems like it is going by much faster with Caleb than it did with Noah. I can't believe he will be 5 months old on Monday!





This is our latest craft project. It was fun except Noah got to help for about 2 seconds - the time it took me to realize this is real dye, it is going to stain everything, including skin! He looks cute wearing it, though.

Davy Jones?

I took this while we were camping, and everytime I saw it I thought of Davy Jones from Pirates, hee hee.

Ahhhh, the great outdoors

Can you say rejuvenation? This weekend was wonderful. Hiking, swimming, s'mores, nature. What can top that? Noah was born to be outside. The camping site was so beautiful. You could hear the rushing water as you walked around. This made me wonder why haven't we been here so much sooner. Who knows, maybe we can camp our way across America to Alaska?! Boy, did God know what he was doing or what?

Top 5

I have been tagged by my sis-in-law to name my fav places to eat, so here goes:

No particular order:

1 - Coast, Charleston - Best place for seafood, period.

2 - Meritage, Charleston - if you like tapas, you will LOVE meritage. It has been a fav for us since we moved here.

3 - Miller's Hotdogs, Ardmore, OK - the best dogs and chocolate malts in the WORLD!

4 - Mears, Mears, OK - Cowboy up when you go here. You get your choice of steak, steak, steak, or more steak. Served on a metal plate and huge sides.

5 - Ruth's Chris - I know it's a chain, but they have the best sweet potatoes I have ever put in my mouth!

Now I am going up the ante a little - Top 5 desserts

1 - High Cotton, Charleston - The best chocolate Kevin and I have ever put in our mouth. It was a chocolate souffle with chocolate in the middle all warm and gooey, with more chocolate drizzled over it. It will be really hard to ever beat this one.

2 - The banana pudding at Mears, in Mears, OK. It is homemade fresh everyday. I mean from scratch, no instant stuff here.

3 - Paolo's Gelato, Charleston - staight from Italy, he came here and set up shop. Made fresh everyday it is the best stuff I have put in my mouth, and I am not a ice cream person. Try the straciatella - it is the best.

4 - Cafe Vienna at Kaminsky's, Charleston - this is not exactly a dessert, it's a coffee but it has been the perfect after dinner drink for the past four years.

5 - The Chocolate Pie from Smithville, TN - hands down, none can beat it.

ok, Michele, Ann, Cryssy, TAG you're it, let's have 'em.......

Too Early

I never blog in the a.m., but I am waiting on my coffee and was checking email. I won't hear from Kevin today so it will be a long day of keeping myself busy with various stuff. I am working on things today, so that MAYBE just MAYBE we will get orders and I can schedule the military to pack us up. Our plans have totally changed and we are now scheduled to be in Alaska an entire month earlier that previously thought. Big time crunch for us since there is so much that has to be done, and Kevin has a school slot that is going to take 1.5 months to complete. Leaving us with a little bitty bit of time to get to Anchorage. Anywhoo, hopefully I can get the ball rolling this morning and make some things happen. Wish me luck!

Keep Kevin and his squadron in your prayers. His commander is not the best in leadership and the latest bit of encouragement that fell out of his mouth was, "I don't care about the morale of this squadron, they need to follow my rules." I will not go on about this guy, however these guys (Kevin and his squadron) are soon to be in a position where they will burn out quickly, leaving a chance for accidents to happen. It really irks me cause this commander could totally prevent it. Our prayers are needed!!

I am off camping this weekend. YEAH! We love camping and have not been able to do it here, because all local fresh water is inhabited by alligators - don't go near the edge- and the temps are crazy as far as being able to actually be able to breath in the humidity! So, finally as we are on the verge of moving, we have some friends that know of a great spot where you can actually swim in fresh water with no fear of the gators, the water is clean, the area is very nice. I wish Kev could go, he would love it. Will post pics when I get back!

Have a great weekend everyone!

The big hurdle

Well, for the last couple weeks I have been dealing with these buyers and their reaction to the home inspection. Let's just say, that it ain't been easy. I have been trying to keep the faith, cause I know this is God's deal and He will see it through, but man has it been hard. Good days and bad days. The buyers were really concerned over a mismatch in color of the slab of the house. The inspector made this out to be something way more than it is just to cover his back. However, this made the buyers really antsy and I could tell that the outcome of the closing was hinged on them getting a concrete specialist to look at the slab - this I refused to pay for cause I knew nothing was wrong. However, the devil took this opportunity to put lots of doubt in my head and I took the bait hook, line, and sinker. So I got the call yesterday from my realtor that a concrete specialist had inspected the slab and said that it was fine, we will be closing as scheduled. Huge weight off my shoulders. Now, there are no more hurdles to jump (as of yet), no more inspections, no more dealing with the buyers until the day of closing. Thanks for all the prayers for my faith to stay strong, it has really really helped. Lesson learned once again, that as soon as I am somewhat feeling sure in my faith, that is when I fail the most. I should take the plank out of my eye, reassemble the hurdle, and give it a try again.

Sweet Sweet Monday

Normally, the word sweet and Monday do not go together, but today was an exception. The boys and I got to see Kevin today. Now, before you get all excited for me, and thank you for getting excited for me, let me explain. The base has a video phone, and I called and asked if I could use it. They eagerly obliged. So, Noah, Caleb, and I sat in front of a 27" TV and saw Kevin via video phone. It was very nice seeing him and him seeing the boys. Noah was in need of a daddy fix. However, to my surprise I did not like what came on the TV. I love my husband, I think he is a hottie, but his new look is not my favorite. Imagine a bald head Kevin with a big, gnarly, tom selleck moustache, and that it what I saw today. Apparently, this is what all the guys do while deployed, they grow moustaches. How cool. NOT! I sweetly advised him to get rid of the tom selleck look before he arrives home in Sept. Honestly, it is not above me to show up to see him after 4 months with shaving cream and razor at the ready.
Noah was so funny talking with his dad. He kept repeating, "Dad get in a plane and fly to Noah's house!" and "Come and play, just get in a plane, it's not hard". We had a good laugh at his sweetness. However, when it came time to disconnect it was like saying good-bye all over again. Noah broke down for a few minutes and I carried two crying babies to the car. Seeing him was almost worse than not, cause I couldn't hug him or kiss him. I miss him and wish God speed upon these last months. It was a sweet sweet Monday.

Expectation

Today was Caleb's ortho appt. The doc was greatly impressed with his progression. His foot is very flexible and looking great. However, my hopes that the brace would come off for half the day were crushed. The doc said he could increase his "break" time from 1 hour to 4 hours a day, and maybe in Aug. we could go down to wearing the brace and nap time and bed time only. I was a little sad. I was wanting more freedom for Caleb so badly, but the doc knows best.